The scent was intoxicating.

I ran up to the tall moroi, she heard me only just before I grabbed her shoulder, she turned slowly, her expression full of fear and terror. How I enjoy feeding time. I made a jump for her neck. She put her hands up to her face, a survival response ingrained in humans and moroi alike. I always enjoyed that part, like they were trying to fight, but I was too good for them. I overpowered them quickly.

I bit into her neck, drinking in that sweet, sweet liquid. It was delicious, I drank for about a minute and a half, her limbs, which were thrashing wildly when I first began the feeding, grew stiller and stiller, and her pulse, which, due to the closeness, I could see and hear, grew much more feebler every more enjoyable I heard her breathing get shallower and shallower as her beating heart struggled to keep going. Finally, she let out a massive gust of air, and breathed no more.

How stupid that moroi girl had been, now thinking back, she deserved to die. Going out in this part of town at night. You didn't find many that were that stupid. I started to run back to Galina's estate. The run wouldn't tire me, but the monotony of the landscape would make this trip undoubtedly boring. I ran for about forty minutes before I got to the maze. The stupid maze, Galina and her theatrics made me sick (figuratively speaking) she prattled on about this and that, what chandeliers would look better in her office, which room she should put her next victim in.

As if any of that mattered. Just like that maze, everything she did was over the top, she did it to show off. To project her position as alpha over us younger strigoi. Yet, as young as I may be, I am still more powerful than she is, and a more worthy predator by far. She was nothing but prey. She was smart, I'd admit, how else could she have stayed at the top for this long? But I knew things about Galina that no one else knew. I knew how to get on her good side, and I knew all of her moves like they were my own, in fact, some of them were.

In another life, a much stupider and pointless one, she'd been my mentor. She'd taught me all I'd known, she had made me the guardian used to be. That was what I'd believed back then. But now I've been awakened, I know better. She taught me the basics, she provided me with the facilities to train, most importantly she provided me with a competitor. I'd fought against her countless times, and eventually I started winning. My talent and skill surpassed hers. I would kill her one day, I would take charge of the empire she'd built. Even though she'd be unhappy, her rules and beliefs should allow it. I was the predator, she was the prey.

When I finally arrived inside I went straight into Galina's office, to see what needed to be done. I strolled straight in as if I owned the place, which I soon would. Instead of walking in on her reading a book, which is what I'd come to expect, I walked in on her staring at Marlen as if she wanted to kill him. I understood that thoroughly, Marlen was so pathetic I often wanted to kill him too.

"Ah Dimitri, just who we needed to see." she said, smiling with her fangs showing. "You'll never guess who Marlen ran into today." she said, her voice practically dripping with sarcasm and disgust. I studied him harder, and discovered, that apart from his natural air of I'm a pathetic idiot he'd added some more features that made me want to cut his head off watch it burn to a cinder.

Like a set of long puckered scars on his face and neck. Judging by the smell of them, and how much they seemed to be hurting him, I'd bet they were made by a silver stake. Typical, The loser got beaten up by the guardians. I can't believe they didn't kill him. Even the guardians are less pathetic then Marlen. I smiled too, fangs and all, just hoping that Galina would kill him now, hell, I hoped she'd let me help. Killing Marlen would be more fun than that girl I had for dinner.

Instead, her expression of superiority changed to something expectant and full of anticipation. "go on you swine, tell him." her voice was saturated with resentment, and he looked at her with a look of such hate and fury I thought he was going to jump her. But as he thought a plan through quickly he sagged in defeat. As stupid as he was, he knew he'd never survive that fight. Pity, if he'd started it I could've killed him and told Galina I did it because I thought his lack of respect was so repugnant I didn't think he should be allowed to live. She'd take pleasure in that.

Instead, he simply turned his hate filled gaze to me,

"Rose Hathaway said she's looking for you." he said, his face, if possible, grew more loathsome at the mention of her name. Hmmmmm. Rose Hathaway, Rosemarie, Roza. I felt a small flicker in the back of my head. Like something had been ignited.

"Rose Hathaway, brown hair, brown eyes?" I asked, wanting to confirm.

"No you idiot, the other Rose Hathaway you know." Galina said, Sarcasm marring her usually brusque and forceful tone. I sent a cold glare in her direction and a smirk appeared on Marlen's face, did he want a skewer through his chest?

"I was merely making sure Galina, chances shouldn't be taken with her, she has skill." I said

"You think this dhampir poses a threat?" she asked, again with a sarcastic tone, I can tell you it's not appreciated.

"One like her does."

"And what would make you say that Dimitri, your love for the girl?" More sarcasm. More glaring

"No, I'm saying that because it is the truth, she was taught by me." I replied curtly, hoping to end the conversation. I didn't.

"And I taught you, therefore she poses no threat to me or my establishment, ergo, she is no concern to me, however, deal with her as you see fit." she said, clearly wanting that to be the final word, I happily complied, that last thing I wanted to talk about was Rosemarie Hathaway. It was giving me a headache. I left her office with one more glare at Marlen, pathetic, pathetic Marlen. You'd think the guardians wouldn't just leave Marlen alive. His survival seemed odd. But that part of this situation was hardly the most important.

As Dhampirs go, Rose was dangerous. She'd been abnormally skilled, and had a temper that could flare if anything, or anyone she loved was in danger. I'd loved her in another life, it had been pointless, love was just another stupid emotion that made everything unnecessarily difficult. It was just another weakness. Not worth the trouble. Not worth all the sacrifices. Not even worth the sex.

My head was hurting, it was like a pressure was building up in the back of my head. Not unheard of between young strigoi, the older vampires assumed it just had something to do with the remnants of the human/moroi tissue and blood in the unused parts of the brain building up or something. The dull pain came and went, and usually occurred when I was thinking hard about stuff. I decided I'd ignore it and keep thinking, Headaches are hardly problems when your very pissed off ex comes to town.

Rose got pissed off quite a bit and she'd often do things that were pointless and stupid without thinking them through, and she had to get her way with everything. Even worse, she was quick to love and protect people, it was her one main weakness. One that people had taken advantage of time and time again, she still didn't get the point. She'd always managed to get out of the consequences one way or another, but when it came to blame, she neglected the source. She refused to prevent the preventable.

Funnily enough, the thing that made Rose dangerous also threatened to destroy her ability to remain dangerous. She was shadow kissed, which meant she'd been brought back from the realm of the dead. She'd died in a car accident nearly 3 years ago, and her best friend Vasilisa Dragomir, the Dragomir princess, had used her weird spirit powers to bring her back from the dead without even realising it. As a result, a physic link had been forged between them, and Rose always knew what Lissa was feeling and was able to get into her head. Because of this, Rose had started sucking up all the bad side effects from Lissa's magic, AKA: her insanity. It was worthy of a crappy TV soap.

The pressure in my head was growing, hurting more, it was pissing me off. I had to stop thinking about it, it was all just too complicated for so late. I could see behind the dark tint of the large bay window in the lobby that the sun had started to peek it's head over the horizon. I headed up the stairs to my suite. Maybe I'd read my old western novel or something.

I walked into the room.

This room had different colours on every wall, sometimes black, sometimes white, sometimes different shades of red. A pretty cliché vampire colour scheme if you ask me, but Galina loved the show. There were parts of her in every room of this house, for example a stupid chandelier on the ceiling and the way that everything was just one piece. There were no joints in her furniture, no picture frames hung on the walls. Not even the TV was hanging on the wall, it was like it was just a natural part of the wall, just like the mirrors and shelves.

My thoughts were interrupted by one person approaching my door. It had a keypad lock, as well as a deadbolt. Meaning that leaving my door unlocked didn't leave it open to the world, just the people who knew the code. I hadn't locked the deadbolt when I'd closed the door behind me. Just then I heard a sound that gave away the identity of the person on the other side of the door. I ran to lock the deadbolt, but didn't quite reach it in time.

Nathan entered through the door as if he owned the place. His arrogant face was not one that was welcome in my room, as he was well aware.

"Dimitri, Dimitri" he mock sighed. "The love of your life has made contact, you must be simply thrilled by these turn of events." he said. He delivered it with a sarcastic voice, just as Galina had. I gave him the same treatment as I had with her, a cold glare.

"Nathan, do not tempt me." my voice menacing. He appeared indifferent to my reaction, but I saw his eyes flash, I couldn't tell whether it was fear or anger, probably a mixture of both.

"Don't you find her annoying though, first she wouldn't shut up in that battle, then she come running into Russia, killing our allies, and doesn't even do us the service of killing Marlen." he sighed, I had to agree, her behaviour was annoying.

"How many has she killed?" I asked, guardians killed our kind all the time, why Nathan would mention her kills was beyond me.

"Three, four if you count Marlen's pride." He snickered. Three? That was all?

"Only three? Why is that such a big deal?"

"Three today Dimitri." he said, a hint of amusement in his eyes, probably in response to my understanding, or lack thereof. But how could I be expected to understand that she would kill three in one night? It was unheard of. I didn't want Nathan to know I'd been caught by surprise, so instead, I said nothing.

"Some of the other worthless swine in this place are considering not going out tomorrow just because they fear her and her friends will be there." Friends? Had Vasilisa and the Ozera boy gone too?

"What friends?"

"She's hunting with a band of unpromised dhampirs." My head started hurting. Unpromised Dhampirs? Where had she found any of those?

"Were they Russian?"

"Marlen seems to think so."

"Anything else I need to know?" I asked, wondering if he was withholding any other vital information. If he was I - wait - vital? Was this information really vital? Why did I care about what she did? I should care about hunting her down, she would be fun prey to hunt. Perhaps I'd take a trip into Novosibirsk myself, have a little fun and adventure for a change. Sure she wouldn't taste as good as a moroi, but watching the life fade from her eyes would be satisfying.

Suddenly the small dull ache in my head doubled, and I felt as though there was something that was in my brain trying to claw It's way out. It hurt more than any of the other injuries that I'd received as a strigoi, that didn't really mean much, I'd only had one or two injuries. Oblivious to my distraction, Nathan answered my question, but considering how long he was talking for, I'd say he was likely giving me a lecture or something, about how it isn't any of my business, I honestly didn't give a shit about his opinion on the matter, and my sudden head ache had given me a shorter temper, and with every passing second Nathan spoke, it grew shorter and shorter.

"Nathan, leave." I said, my voice must have conveyed my sudden fit of bloodlust, because he smiled a sadistic smile and leaped of the chair he'd sat himself down on.

"You wanna dance boy?"

"Don't even try Nathan, if you don't pick your ass up and leave i'm going to pick it up and throw it out for you."

"I'd like to see you try Belikov." I could practically see my temper metre burst as I lunged. Going for his throat. He had pretty quick reflexes, and reacted quickly to my attack, but I was prepared, and I launched my second as he blocked my first one, sweeping his legs out from underneath him and pinning him to the ground. Before I could do anything else he started talking

"Galina won't appreciate you killing off her favourite." he said, his voice not really conveying any of the fear I could see in his eyes. "In fact she'll be very angry."

He was right, Nathan was one of her favourites, and he had served her well. But he was just such an irritating ass, surely she wouldn't mind that much, I could take over all his jobs anyway. This would create instability with her, further my influence, give me more control. God, why hadn't I thought of this in the first place, it was such a perfect start to my plans. Or at least it sounded perfect

Until Galina walked in.

"What are you two doing?" she asked, her voice and expression apathetic.

"He jumped me." Nathan said to her quickly, just like he was a child in the 2nd grade. Pitiful.

"Dimitri, not in control of yourself, as usual, get of him." her voice grew harder as she said the last words, and for a moment, I imagined ripping her head off, sweet, sweet mental images, but, coming back into reality, I knew now wasn't the time. I wouldn't be able to control her estate with my current position, perhaps in a month's time, when I had served her more, and been promoted, I'd have enough influence to kill her and take all this over.

So I stood up and mustered up the most hate filled expression I could, and directed it straight at Nathan. He just stood up next to Galina and together, they walked out of the room.